Apparatus for continuously displacing a flexible strip in a treatment installation

ABSTRACT

A method and mechanism for advancing and guiding an endless flat web of flexible, non-stretchable material, e.g. metal, through a treatment station, where the web is looped around two opposite drums in several consecutive loops arranged side by side, the upper strands of the loops being twisted into an upended position in which they can be shifted laterally by bedning them over a pair of guide rollers, which thus create a parallel offset in the strands.

United States Patent Giros 3,689,000 51 Sept. 5, 1972 [54] APPARATUS FORCONTINUOUSLY DISPLACING A FLEXIBLE STRIP IN A TREATMENT INSTALLATIONMarcel A. P. Giros, France Assignee: Societe Meusienne de ConstructionsMecaniques, Ancerville, France Filed: March 23, 1970 Appl. No.: 21,982

Inventor: Ancerville,

U.S. Cl ..242/55.01, 72/64 Int. Cl. ..B65h 17/18 Field of Search..242/55.01; 72/39, 64, 299

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,401,397 Blakistone et a1..242/55.0l X

3,380,678 4/1968 Feasey et al, ..242/55.01

3,094,293 6/1963 Schultz ..242/55.0l 2,729,446 1/1956 Morrilletal .Q..242/55.0l

Primary ExaminerStanley N. Gilreath Assistant Examiner -Milton S.Gerstein Attorney-Otto John Munz [57] ABSTRACT A method and mechanismfor advancing and guiding 5 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PATENTEBsEP 5 I972INVENTOR MARCEL A P GIROS BY M - 6 AT%NEY 1 APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLYDISPLACING A FLEXIBLE STRIP IN A TREATMENT INSTALLATION BACKGROUND OFTHE INVENTION 1. Field of the invention Strips of metal of great length,as supplied in metallurgy, have to be pickled or scoured before use inthe tube industry, or other industries, and the main object of theinvention is to provide means to operate such a treatment, or othertreatments, when the width of the strip is too large for usingconventional methods and processes.

2. Description of the Prior Art In my US. Pat. No. 2,651,104,I havedisclosed a method of and a device for continuously moving a flexiblestrip or wire of a material such as metal through a bath or a treatmentchamber. It is possible by this method to pass continuously through sucha chamber a plane, profiled or filiform flexible strip of great length,consisting of a material which is to undergo a treatment therein. Themethod consists in causing the strip,

preferably coiled on itself, to unwind therein and to move in generalhelical form along the whole path in which it is treated, whereafter itis again coiled on itself, if desired.

This method is not exclusively applicable to strips of small width, suchas those which have been produced for some years in metallurgy, but itis not very suitable for the treatment of strip of a width of severalhundred millimeters as now supplied in this industry, because difiicultyis encountered in bringing such wide strips into the form of a helix andmaintaining them in this form in tanks or treatment chambers. On theother hand, hard problems arise in passing a wide helical strip abovethe walls of tanks when its width reaches a certain value.

The present invention has for its object to provide a method by which aband or strip of greater width can be continuously passed through one ormore treatment baths or chambers than by the devices of the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the invention, the stripfollows a path which leads it alternately from one roll to a second rolland vice versa, means being provided to ensure that the passage from thefirst roll to the second roll takes place with a shift of a lengthsubstantially equal to the width of the strip.

An apparatus according to the invention comprises a chamber of generallyrectangular elongated form, a first transverse drive roll in theneighborhood of one end of the said chamber, a second transverse driveroll parallel to the first in the neighborhood of the other end of thesaid chamber, the two rolls being intended to support and to drive stripalong a general flattened helical path which causes it to travelsuccessively from the first roll to the second roll'and vice versa, andmeans for inverting and laterally shifting the strip in at least one ofthe two paths along which it travels from one roll to the other.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 illustrates schematically anapparatus according to the invention as seen in perspective, and

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the same apparatus.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to these two figures,will be seen that a treatment tank 1 is filled with a treatment liquid 2to a certain level 21.

Disposed transversely in the said tank are two shafts with rolls 3 and 4being rotated at equal speed by appropriate means in the direction ofarrows 31 and 41 (these rolls are half dipped in the liquid bath 2). Astrip generally denoted by 10, which comes from a store, for example,enters the bath at 11 after having passed under the roll 4, the strip 10forms a substantially horizontal run 12, which leads it to the roll 3after having passed under this roll, the strip 10 forms a run 13 whichleaves the roll 3 in flat form and passes over a roller 51 on a verticalaxis between the roll 3 and the roller 51, the strip 10 undergoes atwist at a right angle, and it thereafter passes between the roller 51and a roller 52 and runs on to the roll 4 after having undergone afurther right-angled twist in the same direction as before (run 14). Thestrip thereafter again enters the bath 2, returns to the roll 3 and soon.

Each time the strip 10 travels from the roll 4 to the roll 3, it forms asubstantially horizontal run such as 12, and each time the strip travelsfrom the roll 3 to the roll 4 it undergoes a double twist, and inaddition it is laterally shifted by a certain amount.

It will be noted that the two twists which the strip 10 undergoes beforeand after passing over a pair of rollers such as 51 and 52 are of likedirection. Consequently, it is not the same face of two contiguous runssuch as 12 and 15 which is the upper face, that is to say, the stripisturned over each time it dips into the treatment bath. These conditionsare favorable to the treatment itself.

It will also be observed that the diameter of the rollers 51 and 52 issubstantially equal to their height, that is to say, to the width of thestrip, and that the axes of two rollers of one pair are not exactly in acommon longitudinal plane of the tank. This results in a slight gap suchas 42 between two successive strips such as 16 and 17 on each roll.

After having passed around the rolls 3 and 4 a number of times, thestrip 10 runs off at 18, whence it passes to a place of utilizationafter having been treated in the tank 1 or to another tank in order toundergo a further treatment therein.

The rollers such as S1 and 52 are, for example, are mounted oncrossmembers such as 5, which are only partially shown in the figures inorder not to overload the latter.

I claim:

1. A method of advancing and guiding a continuous flat web of flexible,non-stretchable material through a treatment station such as a chemicalbath or the like, comprising the steps of:

looping the web around two parallel spaced horizontal reversing drums ina plurality of adjacently running elongated open web loops, with eachweb loop forming an upper and a lower web strand between the reversingdrums; longitudinally twistinga first length portion of the upper webstrand of each web loop by a quarter turn so that the flat web is forcedto run in an upended orientation; maintaining the upended web in thatorientation over a subsequent second length portion of the web strand;laterally offsetting the web strand in its upended length portion byrunning the web over two spaced bending guides, the two bending guidesdeflecting the web by equal opposite angles; and longitudinally twistinga subsequent third length portion of the web strand by another quarterturn, so as to return the web from the upended orientation to theorientation required for running around the reversing drums; the thustwice twisted and twice bent web running around the two reversing drumsin successive laterally shifted loops.

2. A mechanism for advancing and guiding a continuous flat web offlexible, non-stretchable material through a treatment station such as achemical bath or the like, comprising in combination:

two horizontal reversing drums arranged with their axes in parallel andspaced apart a greater distance as is required for twisting of the webby one-half turn without permanently deforming the latter, the width ofthe reversing drums being a multiple of the web width;

structural means for supporting the two reversing drums and drive meansfor driving at least one of the reversing drums in order to advance theweb; means for guiding the web around the reversing drums in severalconsecutive, adjacently running elongated open web loops, with each loopforming two web strands between the reversing drums; the guiding meansengaging one of the web strands of each web loop in such a way that afirst length portion of the strand is longitudinally twisted by aquarter turn to force the web to run in an upended orientation, a secondlength portion of the strand is maintained in the upended orientation, athird length portion of the strand is again longitudinally twisted by aquarter turn to return the web from the upended orientation to theorientation required for running around the reversing drums, and thatthe upended web in the second length portion of the strand is bent tocreate such a lateral ofiset between the first and third length portionsof the strand that each consecutive web loop runs adjacently to thepreceding one.

3. The web advancing mechanism as defined in claim 2, wherein the webguiding means and the continuous web are so arranged that the twistingin the first and third length portions of the web is in the same senseso that the web is inverted by the web guiding means, as it travels fromone reversing drum to the other.

4. A web advancing mechanism as defined in claim 2,

wherein the web guiding means include a pair of stationary guiderollers, whose parallel axes are perpendicular to the drum axes andwhich are so spaced alon the upended second length portion of the westrand that the web is bent over the two guide rollers at opposite sidesthereof by equal amounts.

5. The web advancing mechanism as defined in claim 4, wherein the twostationary guide rollers and the two reversing drums determine betweenthem the beginning and end of each of the three consecutive lengthportions of the strand, the twisting first and third length portionsextending each between a drum and a guide roller, and the upended secondlength portion extending between the two guide rollers.

1. A method of advancing and guiding a continuous flat web of flexible,non-stretchable material through a treatment station such as a chemicalbath or the like, comprising the steps of: looping the web around twoparallel spaced horizontal reversing drums in a plurality of adjacentlyrunning elongated open web loops, with each web loop forming an upperand a lower web strand between the reversing drums; longitudinallytwisting a first length portion of the upper web strand of each web loopby a quarter turn so that the flat web is forced to run in an upendedorientation; maintaining the upended web in that orientation over asubsequent second length portion of the web strand; laterally offsettingthe web strand in its upended length portion by running the web over twospaced bending guides, the two bending guides deflecting the web byequal opposite angles; and longitudinally twisting a subsequent thirdlength portion of the web strand by another quarter turn, so as toreturn the web from the upended orientation to the orientation requiredfor running around the reversing drums; the thus twice twisted and twicebent web running around the two reversing drums in successive laterallyshifted loops.
 2. A mechanism for advancing and guiding a continuousflat web of flexible, non-stretchable material through a treatmentstation such as a chemical bath or the like, comprising in combination:two horizontal reversing drums arranged with their axes in parallel andspaced apart a greater distance as is required for twisting of the webby one-half turn without permanently deforming the latter, the width ofthe reversing drums being a multiple of the web width; structural meansfor supporting the two reversing drums and drive means for driving atleast one of the reversing drums in order to advance the web; means forguiding the web around the reversing drums in several consecutive,adjacently running elongated open web loops, with each loop forming twoweb strands between the reversing drums; the guiding means engaging oneof the web strands of each web loop in such a way that a first lengthportion of the strand is longitudinally twisted by a quarter turn toforce the web to run in an upended orientation, a second length portionof the strand is maintained in the upended orientation, a third lengthportion of the strand is again longitudinally twisted by a quarter turnto return the web from the upended orientation to the orientationrequired for running around the reversing drums, and that the upendedweb in the second length portion of the strand is bent to create such alateral offset between the first and third length portions of the strandthat each consecutive web loop runs adjacently to the preceding one. 3.The web advancing mechanism as defined in claim 2, wherein the webguiding means and the continuous web are so arranged that the twistingin the first and third length portions of the web is in the same senseso that the web is inverted by the web guiding means, as it travels fromone reversing drum to the other.
 4. A web advancing mechanism as definedin claim 2, wherein the web guiding means include a pair of stationaryguide rollers, whose parallel axes are perpendicular to the drum axesand which are so spaced along the upended second length portion of theweb strand that the web is bent over the two guide rollers at oppositesides thereof by equal amounts.
 5. The web advancing mechanism asdefined in claim 4, wherein the two stationary guide rollers and the tworeversing drums determine between them the beginning and end of each ofthe three consecutive length portions of the strand, the twisting firstand third length portions extending each between a drum and a guideroller, and the upended second length portion extending between the twoguide rollers.